♨ RealSimple.com seems to rank on the first page for anything related to things like 10, 15 minute recipes, cleaning products, physical fitness and workouts, makeup and beauty.

And sometimes they are not even the most relevant result, but they rank anyway.

WHY?

♨ Brand and non-brand search volume: A lot of people who search for quick recipes or cleaning products might add "Real Simple" or "Martha Stewart" to their searches ==> Google starts building a connection between the brand and the searches.

♨ Co-occurrence of brand name and/or links to the site from sites/pages discussing these topics: 'Oh, gosh, a lot of people who are talking about cleaning products seem to link over to Real Simple.'

♨ Searchers on these topics eventually end up on that site or where on the web they frequent: 'Hmm, you know, this person searched for cleaning products. We didn't send them to Real Simple, but then eventually they ended up there anyway.'

♨ Thus, if we want to rank for certain topics, we need to start asking ourselves:

'Okay, how do we build up an association between our brand or our domain and the broad keywords, terms, topics, phrases, so that we can rank for all of the long tail and chunky middle terms around those topics?'

But how?

♨ Instead of building that one page that addresses that one specific inquiry, target various topics in many of your posts as often as you can.

In other words, consistently produce the kind of content that will provide consistent and thorough help on the topics your site wants to be associated with.

Solve your readers' problems! Become a site that is associated with all of the keyword topics, rather than just cherry picking the ones that convert for you.

Greetings from SearchLove San Diego! I was fortunate enough to attend this year's conference, and will be providing select presentation recaps.

It's all changed – from how people use the web, to how Google ranks pages, to what resonates with influencers. Not surprisingly, the tactics marketers employ need to change, too. But tragically, many of us are stuck in a rut, eeking out the last few drops of fuel from efforts that are dying or dead. What's even worse – the cutting edge practices that are producing remarkable returns heavily benefit early adopters, and if we're not in those groups, we could find ourselves way behind in the years to come. In this presentation, Moz founder Rand will dive deep into what really works to drive traffic, rankings, branding, and conversions (and what's better left in the scrap heap of yesteryear).

What Changed - a brief look at the more subtle, quiet changes in SEO & Web Marketing

1. Both searchers and engines are demanding a tremendous amount more from our content e.g. pagespeed, UX, search quality metrics (SERP bounce). - Google is leaning more heavily on human quality raters- Past SEO success may not be indicative of the future

2. The move from keyword matching to topic association- Google is moving away from occurrences and looking more at the contextual meaning of the webpage. It's using topic association and topic modeling and entity matching

3. Domain level keyword connections are on the rise- Google's algorithm used to be very page-level biased- Invest in a domain level content strategy.

4. Google's crackdown on spam is basically a crackdown on ranking without a brand- Manipulating Google - you better be a brand. Google doesn't want to look bad by not having a big brand in their results. Just look at the big brands that have been penalized and been back in the SERPs days or weeks later- Ranking well, but now a brand, Google's gonna reclassify those tactics- "brands are the solution, not the problem, brands are how you sort out the cesspool - Eric Schmidt

5. Critical SEO data still flows to a small percentage of websites ♦ Not provided. Big sites - 10% of referral data is still useful ♦ AdWords [Exact Match] no longer exact - but if you're a BIG advertiser, that keyword data still flows through your reports ♦ Google Analytics sampling is pervasive...unless you pay

Tactics: Processes and practices to change in the year ahead to stay a step ahead

♦ Instead of grouping keywords by targeting and ranking ability - group keywords by overlap in searcher intent♦ Break into the buckets of 1% of terms of phrases you can target on one page

If you have multiple pages already targeting the same keywords, consider consolidation (especially if they don't rank well). Be the source or domain that Google connects with a topic.

You can't just rely on the Keyword Planner Tool for expansion anymore

Your content should do two things: engage users and be optimized for Google's topic modeling algorithm. Build up your site's association with a topic or set of topics

♦ If there is a link that you can go build, Google doesn't want to count it.

Anchor text still works with a charm

♦ The goal for relationships isn't links, it's to grow the quantity of interactions where the relationship is real.

Don't be like everyone else. Folks with heavy Twitter followings often get bombarded with offers. Sort by social authority, find out who is influential that doesn't have a high follower count.

Tool: GoConspire - you can find anyone at a given company and or any specific person and how we're connected.

Pro Tip The correlation exists between advertisers on small-medium sites & links. There's a strong probability that at some point, the blogger/site owner will editorially link to these folks, simply because they're top of mind.

Pro Tip Brand mentions near keywords may have link like effects - why bother with EMAT when you can put your brand next to keywords you want to rank for.

♦ One-of-a-Kind - appears nowhere else on the web♦ Relevant - it contains content that's on topic♦ Helpful - it resolves the searcher's query♦ Uniquely valuable - provides information that's unavailable (or hard to get) elsewhere♦ Great UX - it has to be easy and pleasurable to consume on any device♦ Likely to spread - it has a convincing answer to "who will help amplify this content and why"

Rich Snippets are visual add-ons to the regular organic search results that in some way enhance those results. Authorship photos, review stars, and video thumbnails are all examples of the great variety of rich snippets Google has tried out in its results.

The Faded Glory of Rich SnippetsBut has that grand experiment, one AJ notes Google entered kicking and screaming, now run its course? It is beginning to appear that the results are in, and Google has decided that rich snippets have perhaps been overserved, and like a barroom drunk were drawing too much attention to themselves.

In his article, AJ discusses the maturing of Google's rich snippet algorithm, and why he thinks it has increasingly incorporated site quality filters, perhaps gained at least in part from Google's Panda updates. This (along with UX concerns, very likely) has led to an overall reduction in the amount of rich snippets now being shown.

Authorship As an ExampleAs I pointed out in my January article http://stonet.co/AuthorshipPurge, Authorship results were a prime example of this. Starting in December of 2013 Google not only began reducing the amount of Authorship rich snippets shown overall, but also instituted what I called two "classes" of Authorship. First class authors still got an author photo for most of their authorship-qualified results, while second class got only a byline.

Of course now, since the end of June, author photos have been removed altogether from non-personalized search.

Finally, AJ posits that the Knowledge Graph may be replacing much of what rich snippets once did.

Please read his article for a fascinating deep dive into the mind of Google and how search results evolve over time.

Authored by the one and only link building expert +Paddy MooganTopics covered include: 1: What is Link Building & Why is it important? 2: Types of Links (Both Good and Bad) 3: How to Start a Link Building Campaign 4: Link Building Tactics 5: Link Building Metrics 6: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly of Link Building 7: Advanced Link Building Tips and Tricks

Removing backgrounds from images has traditionally been one of those things that we leave to graphic designers because it’s tedious, annoying and requires having a solid understanding of your graphics software.

As a Digital Marketing Consultant in Portland, Oregon, I speak fluently in SEO, search marketing, social media marketing/strategy and content marketing, with web 3.0 ease.

I provide competitive research and analysis reports on social media and SEO/search marketing, to provide companies that need to know what their competitors are doing and spending in online search and social marketing.

I have worked in multiple media disciplines and prior to my working as a Social Media Strategist, Educator and Consultant, I was a Mortgage Consultant for 4 years. In that capacity I learned the systems and tasks necessary to construct a loan package for underwriting and closing the loan. I also learned that processes and timelines were important to meeting the end objectives and carrying out a successful social media strategy and plan, has similar traits.

While building my mortgage consulting from 2004-2010, I utilized many methods to market my business, which included use of internet marketing, blogging, video marketing, SEO, social media networking and I relied heavily on my past experience in the event marketing, advertising and media production and music production fields as well.

In addition to my past careers, I have remained abreast in the new field of social media and internet marketing, continually attending multiple seminars, webinars and reading/digesting books by leaders in this area, with some of the titles I’ve read listed in my books section below.
This multitude of backgrounds, has given me a unique education and perspective in recognizing the opportunities of engagement and conversations on social media networks and I now have the privileged opportunity to share the best practices of social networking and search marketing with others.

My goal now as a Digital Marketing Consultant, is to help companies, community agencies and non-profit entities on how to maximize their communication and marketing efforts by utilizing engagement and monitoring in social media networks and search engine marketing.

(360) 597-8283

Bragging rights

I once met Bill Gates and Warren Buffet at the Four Seasons Hotel waiting in line for the urinal...true story! :)

This is probably one of the best, all-time places I've been to in recent years, for fresh Sushi, located right here in the Pearl District of Portland, OR!!
The Sushi chefs are wonderful, very friendly and educate you on the freshest types of Sushi available that day. You will not be disappointed if you come here for your next Sushi meal. Definitely two thumbs up!!!

I have enjoyed Main Event Sports Bar since it opened and my favorite items are the truffle fries, hummus, fish tacos and the lunch specials. The tomato bisque soup is always a treat too! As far as the bar and drinks, I have to say my go to drink is Stella beer, followed by Hefeweizen by Widmer and if in a martini mood, they do make killer martini's. All in all, the atmosphere, people that work there and the drinks/food are great in my book. It's a welcome addition to downtown Vancouver and is a great option among all the other bars/restaurants in the area. Mondays, kids eat for free (with any adult purchase.) and Sundays they serve breakfast, so you can watch the football games.
And now they've opened up (well it's been many months now) a Vancouver Eastside location, over on 164th Avenue. This location features the same quality food, service and atmosphere, and I think the setting is not your typical Sports Grill. You'll be pleasantly surprised after coming in and checking out the new "digs" at Main Event Sports Grill Eastside.

• • •

I have enjoyed Main Event Sports Bar since it opened and my favorite items are the truffle fries, hummus, fish tacos and the lunch specials. The tomato bisque soup is always a treat too! As far as the bar and drinks, I have to say my go to drink is Stella beer, followed by Hefeweizen by Widmer and if in a martini mood, they do make killer martini's. All in all, the atmosphere, people that work there and the drinks/food are great in my book. It's a welcome addition to downtown Vancouver and is a great option among all the other bars/restaurants in the area. Mondays, kids eat for free (with any adult purchase.) and Sundays they serve breakfast, so you can watch the football games.
And now they've opened up (well it's been many months now) a Vancouver Eastside location, over on 164th Avenue. This location features the same quality food, service and atmosphere, and I think the setting is not your typical Sports Grill. You'll be pleasantly surprised after coming in and checking out the new "digs" at Main Event Sports Grill Eastside.